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Aku Partanen
Personal information
Full name	Veli-Matti Partanen
Born	28 October 1991 (age 33); Lappeenranta, Finland
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)
Sport
Country	Finland
Sport	Athletics
Event	50km Race Walk
Achievements and titles
Personal best	20 km: 1:18:22 (2023);

Veli-Matti "Aku" Partanen (born 28 October 1991, in Lappeenranta) is a Finnish racewalker who competes mostly at the 50 kilometres race walk. Partanen's club is Lappeenrannan Urheilumiehet.

Partanen competed at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, where he was 41st at 50 kilometres.^[2] At the 2014 European Championships, in Zürich, Partanen was 18th. His time was 3:52:58. In 2018, he competed in the men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2018 European Athletics Championships held in Berlin, Germany.^[3] He did not finish his race.^[3] In 2019, he competed in the men's 50 kilometres walk at the 2019 World Athletics Championships held in Doha, Qatar.^[4] He did not finish his race.^[4]

Partanen's original name was Veli-Matti, but he changed his name to Aku because everyone called him Aku.^{[citation needed]}

In 2021, he represented Finland at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he finished 9th in the men's 50 kilometres walk and set a season best of 3:52:39.^[5]

Records

^ ^a ^b "European Athletics - Athlete: Veli-Matti Partanen". european-athletics.
^ ^a ^b "Veli-Matti Partanen | Profile". www.iaaf.org.
^ ^a ^b "Final results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Men's 50 kilometres walk – Final" (PDF). 2019 World Athletics Championships. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 July 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
^ "Athletics - Final Results". Olympics. Archived from the original on 2021-07-22. Retrieved 2021-08-07.